A disturbing story about laissez faire capitalism

There is a sad story from the New York Times that speaks to business ethics and what is considered acceptable and ethical business practices. It will also speak to you about what the expected future is for USA workers. Here are a few quotes with commentaries.

Not long ago, Apple boasted that its products were made in America. Today, few are. Almost all of the 70 million iPhones, 30 million iPads and 59 million other products Apple sold last year were manufactured overseas. …

… It isn’t just that workers are cheaper abroad. Rather, Apple’s executives believe the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the flexibility, diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have so outpaced their American counterparts that “Made in the U.S.A.” is no longer a viable option for most Apple products.

Now to this point this sounds like a typical industrial argument. The USA has indeed been much too focused on the short term. For decades both conservative and liberal commentators have been warning that our failure to set aside capital for infrastructure upgrades has been damaging our ability to be competitive. And that is completely true. However, what no comentator expected was the globalization that was going to be coming. The increased efficiency in global travel and the ability to ship goods cheaply from country to country has made it possible to produce goods and parts in various countries and ship them to almost any other country in a cost-efficient manner. This has meant that revamping infrastructure is not as cost-efficient as building new infrastructrue in another country. In fact, that was a realization that struck decades ago when companies realized that it was cheaper to build a new plant in the USA than to revamp existing infrastructure. So, factories began to move out of the old industrialized parts of this country to non-industrialized parts of this country. It was a plus for industrialists in the USA that they were able to blame unions for their moves rather than admitting that this was but one factor in the decisions to move factories. Eventually, however, even the wages that the poorest-paying parts of the USA pay are considered to be too high. You see, the story continues:

Apple executives say that going overseas, at this point, is their only option. One former executive described how the company relied upon a Chinese factory to revamp iPhone manufacturing just weeks before the device was due on shelves. Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight.

A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.

“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.”

Now, read the last three paragraphs again and think about what it implies for the future of the American worker. Please do read the whole article. It is important that you do, because this is Tea Party future. This is the future if the only emphasis is on jobs and maximizing profits, with little emphasis on caring for others. Look again carefully at the last three paragraphs. Workers at a Chinese factory were living in company dormitories. They were roused and given but little food. They were told to work 12 hour shifts. By the way, this is in a Communist country, which means that when you buy Apple, you are supporting not just socialism, but Marxist socialism. Oops, did you notice that there is no family emphasis? The workers were in dormitories, not in family housing. Oh, and should Father Orthoduck mention that when we buy cheap goods from China (not Taiwan) we are buying goods from a country with forced abortions?  More than that, many supporters of the Tea Party are busily running campaigns against anyone who supports abortion in an even indirect way while they have no trouble buying goods from a country which openly forces abortions upon people. Hmm, Father Orthoduck guesses that economic policy trumps pro-life policy because Father Orthoduck certainly does not see pro-life organizations running campaigns to stop us from buying from communist China. That is, Tea Party supporters are against what they call socialism in the USA while strongly supporting it with their economic policies and buying habits.

Yes, this is a rant by Father Orthoduck about both the Tea Party and those who say they are against socialism while inappropriately supporting employee mistreatment in Marxist and socialist countries such as China and other countries that have oppressive child labor, etc. This is what it means to be a Tea Party supporter. It means that in the USA they hoist signs that claim that Obama is leading us to socialism at the same time that they have no problems with worker wages being lowered or with products being sold in the USA that are produced by Marxist-oppressed overseas workers. It means that Tea Party supporters have no problem with a slow return to workers having to live in company housing and buying at the company store. For those of you who do not know history, I would suggest that you read the history of company towns and company stores, particularly in mining regions in the Appalachian areas of the USA, and what it took to have a decent life as a miner in the USA.

All too many Tea Party supporters claim the moral high ground while they are in fact supporting Marxism and socialism (by their buying habits) and having no problem with wages being cut and families being torn apart so that the husbands (or single women) are available 24/7 in worker dormitories to do whatever is necessary so that profits might be maximized. When profits become all that is important, then families take a much lower place. When profits become all important, then even life (whether infant or adult) takes a much lower place. This is what it means to be a supporter of laissez faire capitalism. This is what it means to be a secular Tea Party supporter. Let Father Orthoduck strongly state that if one is a Christian Tea Party supporter, then while one may support conservative economic policies, one ought to also support boycotts of any country that has strongly anti-life policies. To say that one is against President Obama for socialism while buying Marxist Chinese goods without a protest is a contradiction. One must, as a Christian Tea Party member, be concerned not simply about profits but about any working conditions that will be destructive to families (such as worker dormitories). To say that one is a Christian Tea Party member without making any mention of boycotts against China is only to show either a total uneducated ignorance of reality or to show just how shallow one’s understanding is, or to broadcast to the world that profits are more important than babies. Sadly, most Christian Tea Party members are all about slogans rather than about consequent stances. Most Christian Tea Party supporters do not even think about who their buying policies are supporting and what their policies mean to employee wages and benefits.

People ask why Father Orthoduck cannot give an unequivocal support to the Republican or to the Democratic party. The reason is that neither party is truly pro-life, pro-family. Being pro-life and pro-family means that you must be pro-life and pro-family in every country in the world, not just simply in this country and in a very limited set of circumstances. It means that one ought to support pro-life family policies, even if those policies do not maximize profits. Being a Christian is more than just tallying up the number of abortions while ignoring matters such as worker dormitories and child labor. Being a Christian is realizing that both parties have an awful lot of areas which are not fully Christian. You see, neither party is pro-life and pro-family. On the other hand, both parties have some pro-life, pro-family platform policies.

So, Father Orthoduck’s rant is finished. But, he hopes that you will rethink what it means to be pro-life and pro-family and realize that this subject means more than just economic slogans and anti-socialism slogans. It means being consequent in your thinking and in your actions. Next time a Tea Party member tells you that the only Christian option is the party they support, please educate them.

Let Father Orthoduck leave you with the words to “Sixteen Tons” so that some of you might even try to understand why we cannot have an unregulated free market economy:

Some people say a man is made outta mud
A poor man’s made outta muscle and blood
Muscle and blood and skin and bones
A mind that’s a-weak and a back that’s strong

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin’ when the sun didn’t shine
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal
And the straw boss said “Well, a-bless my soul”

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin’, it was drizzlin’ rain
Fightin’ and trouble are my middle name
I was raised in the canebrake by an ol’ mama lion
Cain’t no-a high-toned woman make me walk the line

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store

If you see me comin’, better step aside
A lotta men didn’t, a lotta men died
One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one don’t a-get you
Then the left one will

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store